Susan Stripling is a wedding photographer whose astonishingly beautiful images, skill, inspired imagination and devotion to the craft have landed her in the midst of some of the most amazing nuptials ever. She just had Studio Z Mendocino do her new business cards and stationery. Susan has photographed weddings throughout the US, the Caribbean, South America, Finland, France, and the Bahamas. She’s been published in Inside Weddings, Martha Stewart Weddings, Grace Ormonde Wedding Style, Bride and Bloom, Modern Bride, The Knot, Professional Photographer Magazine, The New York Times Style section, Rangerfinder Magazine, Capture Magazine, Elegant Bride, in Trade Publications for Nikon USA, and Town and Country Weddings. Susan’s teaching career has developed as well; she has been seen at past Digital Wedding Forum conventions, gives private and group workshops throughout the USA, and has spoken at WPPI. Busy Susan, had Infinet Design devise her double-S monogram and we foil stamped it in gold onto her lux stationery wardrobe: business cards on very thickest Cranes Lettra 600 gram cover stock, and script cards in the same ultra-thick paper (think thank you notes, quick messages accompanying samples, etc., etc.) that fit into spectacular Cranes number ten envelopes with rather monumental square flaps. This is the blockbuster envelope we love to stuff:

Here is the script card:

Because it is foiled in a single color, with the monogram/logo on the front of the business card and only the website address on the back, overall costs were kept to a minimum, but the finished pieces carry all the gorgeousness and panache anyone could possibly desire.

Meier/Ferrer designs contemporary, modernist furniture that has been featured in a slew of national and international magazines. Their look is clean, hip and ultra-chic, which matches perfectly the design Andrew Cinnamon did for their business cards, and which Studio Z Mendocino printed on our venerable 1952 Heidelberg letterpress. It’s that meeting of the centuries that I love so much: the Twenty-first to the Fifteenth, to be exact — Thank you, Mr. Guttenberg for giving us the means to impress all these five hundred years.

We printed deeply the hard-edge typeface Andrew adapted for this purpose onto super-thick 600 gram Lettra paper. Dense black ink. One side only. And let the typography tell its own story with no fanfare other than its own audacity. We also made script cards for them. Four by nine cards that fit into a #10 business envelope or can be paper clipped to a sheaf of design mock ups with a little note. Love love.

We all know photographers are big Wanting Things. They want new lenses and backs, new programs and apps, they want chic cases and they want the latest and most extravagant everything. They all want STUFF all the time, I guess because there is SO MUCH STUFF TO WANT. It gets confusing, not to mention expensive, when you draw a photographer’s name for gift giving at this time of year. So, to make your coming few shopping weeks less hectic, may I humbly suggest you just call me up and order a beautifully letterpress-printed gift certificate, in a denomination you find most appropriate, for letterpress printed business cards. You know they’ve been ogling other photographers’ cards, just wanting away, like Kip Beelman’s fuchsia edged, super-thick square cards, designed by Ross Tanner and printed at Studio Z:

You know she wants them. You know he has been yearning… Or maybe the photographer on your list has been hankering after a completely new brand. Like the ones I did for Alana Couch and Jonathan Chan and Maria Bernal — the sexy black ones with hot pink edge painting — or Laura Gordon. You can apply a gift certificate to branding and/or printing, business cards and/or stationery, invitations and/or whatever. You can choose to make it for the whole job or just something they can apply toward the printing of their dreams.

From the most austere to over-the-top wild, a letterpress business card from Studio Z Mendocino, or a new logo design, can make a difference in the clients one attracts and the jobs one lands. Ask our clients this, about what having jaw-dropping cards like the ones shown here has done for their businesses.

Well, you get the idea. A gift certificate in any amount from Studio Z Mendocino will put a smile on the face of just about anybody who’s in business on your list, and will help them get closer to their vision of passing out business cards that stop people in their tracks.

Call 707.964.2522 to order your specially printed gift certificate for a loved one…or for yourself! We ALL want stuff this time of year, don’t we? Tell somebody! Call Santa!

I don’t usually recommend that photographers use one of their photos on business cards, no matter how amazing. I think it limits what you do to that one image in people’s minds and, as we all know, there is SO much more to the range of work you do. When Elizabeth Perkins, a photographer from Roanoake, Virginia came to me for a new logo, business cards, and stationery wardrobe, she sent me a collection of images to let me get a feeling for what her work is like. One image, a stairway she shot in England, captivated me for some reason and I decided i wanted to use it and see what we could do to adapt if for Letterpress Printing. The singular image had to be turned into a one-color, fairly coarse halftone that could be made into a letterpress polymer plate and printed on black paper. This meant we had to print the negative image in order to make it look positive on the black paper. I know those reading this far are probably mostly photographers, so you can get your mind around this, yes? OK, then we printed it in white ink, so there was a bit of bleed-through from the extra-ultra-thick, black Museum Mount paper, creating something rather elegantly gnarly. Well, how can i explain this? We followed this up by printing the logo I designed for her in gold foil, with the contact information on the back also in gold foil.

I have to say, this is one of the most arresting business cards we have ever done. It has everything: a gorgeous but not too literal bit of Elizabeth’s work translated to something iconic; elegant typography; drama;Artfulness, and everything but a steak and mashed potatoes for utter satisfying gorgeousness. If I do say so myself.

Before Elizabeth and husband Jeff opened her shop in Roanoake, they also wanted us to send letterhead, envelopes, invoices, tags to hang or put up near the photographs, mailing labels and thank you cards.Here are her script cards and envelopes:

And above, her tags.

Below, one of her receipts, a correspondence card and hang tags.

They told me the opening was a grand success, with many well wishers, lots of excitement and even a few sales. I only wish i could have been there too to celebrate with them. Doing a job of this scope makes me feel like such a participant!

It was immeasurably fun to work through all this as Elizabeth’s plans developed and evolved over time. Finding something that expressed her personality and style … it’s one of the most pleasurable aspects of doing my work. The experimental nature of always pushing things a bit further than they have gone, too, makes me very happy. This project opens up a whole new conversation about images and letterpress printing. Working on the next experiment right now.

Congratulations Elizabeth, on your new shop. Thank you for allowing me to work on all this with you.

Working with Jonathan was one of the most give-and-take relationships I have experienced as a designer. Jonathan had ideas of what he didn’t want but was not sure what he did want, so it was a matter of deduction to get to the point of achieving this beautiful result. I made a super-graphic of his JC monogram, letting the flow of the two letters dictate placement. The color came out of nowhere…a fabulous, arresting chartreuse. Printing a solid chartreuse square on one end of the card with the monogram dropped out gave a two-way texture blast. The JC monogram comes UP from the paper, while the black type presses INTO the paper. Jonathan smartly got script cards (aka Buck Slips) and #10 envelopes at the same time, so that the entire package held together in perfect synergy.

We printed Jonathan’s cards on 600 gram Lettra for its extra-ultra-yummy weight, thickness, and subtle texture.

We got to have dinner together at WPPI to top the whole party off. Very fun to make that connection after working so intensely together by phone and email.

All I can say is, get your tickets early this year for the Mendocino Music Festival. As the designer and printer for the Festival these last three years, I’m one of the first to be privy to what’s coming. Lemme tell ya: It is going to be so fantastic. You can read all about it on their web site (designed by Studio Z Mendocino!!): mendocinomusic.com

Every year for the last twenty-four, the Festival has mounted a gigantic white tent right out on the headlands on Mendocino Bay. Inside that tent, for a couple of weeks in July, occurs the most gorgeous, inspiring array of musical offerings you can imagine. From classical orchestra to opera, from world to blues, from folk to JAZZ, we get to feast our ears and eyes on music music music, making our world go round a little bit faster and happier in the middle of summer. I LOVE the MUSIC FESTIVAL!! Here is the inside of the ticket brochure I designed for this year’s Festival.

Yummy, no?

OK, I have to go get ready for the Ball. Oh, didn’t I tell you? I am going to a masquerade ball in San Francisco tonight! Wait till you see the invitations we printed for it. I will tell all when I get back to town. Meanwhile, get your tickets so I can see you here in July at the Mendocino Music Festival!!

Hiram Trillo, a Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, photographer with award-winning style, sent us this photo shoot of his new business cards and other branding elements we produced for him here at Studio Z Mendocino. The square business cards, with Hiram’s iconic monogram printed on our favorite Cranes Lettra 600 gram, super-thick cover stock in a water-colored metallic foil (if your water is the Caribbean), and letterpressed black ink, like the photographs he takes, change mood, hue and tone according to lighting and angle.

In Hiram’s own words:

Since I can remember, I always wanted my own business and business cards. To me a business card speaks volumes; once in a while you find that perfect match. To us, Studio-Z was that match. Zida Borcich is an incredible individual that just clicked. Zida and her team took the time to understand what we wanted and designed a business card that defined our studio. She took it one step further and designed envelopes, letterheads, and thank you cards.

2009 was an incredible year for us. We had a our first magazine feature in Bodas USA, we worked with some amazing couples, had our first magazine shoot with Brides of North Texas, were featured photographer of the month on the PhotoBiz Blog, met some amazing photographers, assisted JVS and Anne with their lighting workshops, and, to finish the year with a bang, we have been nominated for photographer of the year by PhotoBiz. This is a great honor for us to be categorized with some incredible photographers. This is an open competition so any one can vote. We appreciate all votes and spreading the word.

The cards, as well as the rest of the stuff, make our logo stand out in a beautiful sea of blue foil — a literal reflection of our work. I wish I had the words to describe how happy we are with the final product, but since we are photographers — and a photograph is worth a thousand words — here they are…

This was a book Hiram’s father gave to him, “Misterio del Hombre”

He said the blue foil looked just like the colors in this favorite old book and he just had to use it in this shoot.

It was a great pleasure to work with Hiram through the entire process of creating his stationery wardrobe. We are so happy with the results and with his wonderful and enthusiastic response to it all. Thank you, Hiram. Your work is beautiful, and we wish you every good thing in the coming new year and decade. We strive always to make business cards and stationery that reflect that level of uniqueness, quality and artfulness. We are so happy to know you and to have had the good fortune to work with you.